


perhaps not forgotten

by remi_wolf



Series: The Life and Times of Teddy Blaseball [7]
Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Bonding, Breakfast, Comfort, Conversations, Friendship, Gen, Near Misses With a Blaseball Bat, Sleepovers, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28662795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_wolf/pseuds/remi_wolf
Summary: there is a particular melancholy that comes with being a rare individual who ends up almost entirely forgotten while not in someone's line of sight. additionally, there is a particular melancholy that is attached to this when your team captain insists upon having you over and insists that he couldn't particularly forget about you. fortunately for arturo huerta, theodore duende is not a human, and so perhaps he's not quite as forgotten as he might think.
Relationships: Theodore Duende & Arturo Huerta
Series: The Life and Times of Teddy Blaseball [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918738
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: Beguilements and Distractions





	perhaps not forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> It's always sorta rubbed me the wrong way that Arty's entirely forgotten by everyone in some of the fanon that's around a la "Man in the Tan Jacket" from WTNV. So, here I have Teddy Duende, who, as a duende, has a bit of memory alteration ability, and who I've established is part eldritch god, so I decided that Teddy doesn't _entirely_ forget that Arturo exists when he's not looking at them. Teddy might forget what Arty looks like, or that they're there in the room still if he's distracted and it was plausible that Arty left, but he certainly knows that they exist.  
> So! Fic! Here we are, sometime in the early seasons. I think? Between season 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. Something early like that, before everything started falling apart for Teddy.

“Wait, wait, wait!”

Teddy pulled back the bat just at the last moment as he finally managed to focus on the face in front of him, and he sighed softly, dropping the bat down to his side. “Shit, Arty, I thought I asked you to text me before you came over?”

“I came over last night, Teddy.”

The comment had Teddy pausing, and he frowned for a moment as he thought about who it had been that had been there the previous night. He thought he remembered what they looked like, but as he looked at Arturo and took in their appearance, the person from last night neatly slotted into place as Arturo, like what always happened, every time he remembered what Arturo looked like. “Sorry. Thought you looked different.”

Arty gave Teddy a Look, and Teddy shrugged before turning back to his kitchen. “You forgot I was here, just be honest.”

“I don’t forget.”

“You forget!”

Teddy almost winced at the tone, and he looked over at Arturo before frowning. “I don’t..." He sighed softly as he rubbed the back of his neck before shrugging. “I don’t forget about you. I just forget what you look like.”

Arturo was quiet, and Teddy quietly started cracking eggs to make them some scrambled eggs for breakfast. It would be warm, and easy enough, and it wouldn’t take too long, so that would be best for breakfast. After a few moments, though, the silence stretched into something more worrying, and Teddy looked up at them, trying to tamp down the concern as he looked at Arturo and didn’t recognize them, yet again. 

Despite trying to hide the momentary concern, Arturo picked up on it regardless. Like always. “You forgot about me again.”

Their voice was quiet, and Teddy rolled his eyes as he held the box of cracked shells out to them, revealing the six eggs he had used. “I didn’t forget about you. I forgot what you  _ looked _ like, but I didn’t forget you. I might forget that you’re still in the room from time to time, but I don’t forget you.”

Before Teddy could expand, Arturo laughed, a quiet and bitter, clearly disbelieving. Teddy hissed in return, sharp and quick and a clearly not-human sound. Honestly, if anything, it sounded far more like a snake instead of a proper person. The unspoken accusation wasn’t appreciated, though, and Teddy didn’t like the thought that Arturo would think that he’d lie to them.

“Why would you be the exception, Teddy?”

“Duende, not human.” Teddy shrugged at the quick reply of his as he glanced at Arty before looking back at breakfast, tossing some bread in the toaster as well for the two of them. If he was making a point not to look at Arturo only to show that he didn’t actually forget about them while they were in the same room when he wasn’t too distracted, then Arturo would have to call him out on that themselves.

“Duende aren’t that weird. Combs always forgets about me.”

“Combs doesn't have as much duende in him as I do. And besides, I’ve got some weird ancestors in the line, so I get to mess with memories a bit more than most other duende families as it is.”

Arturo hummed softly, frowning before walking over to sit on Teddy’s counter, shifting for a moment, and Teddy tried not to jump every time he caught them in the corner of his eye. Their appearance that he couldn’t remember, or kept shifting, or something like that, kept giving him a headache, which really didn’t help the vague hangover he was dealing with as he finished their breakfast. 

“You know my papa’s nowhere near human, right?” Teddy glanced up at Arturo as he put the eggs and toast onto two plates, offering them one before joining them on the counter. He wasn’t about to use the table if it was clear that Arty had no intention of doing so. Besides, any self-respecting gay couldn’t sit properly on any piece of furniture. 

Arturo hummed quietly, the little two-note ‘mmhm’ as they took a bite of food before just pushing the eggs onto the toast to eat that instead. “You say that he’s not, but then again, you never really tell us what he is, and you don’t exactly seem terribly open to describing _how_ you’re not human beyond being a duende, so I really don’t want to intrude and ask and all.”

Teddy glanced over, a small smile on his face at the concern and care, and he gently nudged Arty’s side as he made his own eggy toast. “Yeah, well. Papa doesn’t like much attention, and honestly, I’ve yet to see him outside of my parent’s attic.” He took a deep breath, glancing over his shoulder at the various keyboards and xylophones and such littering his living room, including the silver set that looked far older than anything else in the apartment. “Those bells are his. Were his, he gave them to me as a graduation present ages ago.”

“Those?” Arturo glanced over their shoulder, looking over at them before glancing back at Teddy. “So...what’s up with them? Those the ones you won’t play for anyone?”

“Yep!” Teddy grinned before shrugging. “Papa’s got...a tendency to break things a bit, so one of my parents got that, and then I’ve got a bit of it as well. Messes with the Duende bit so my memories are more difficult to be altered, even if I can alter my own well enough. And then my stare’s a little more piercing than other duende’s gazes, and yeah.” Teddy glanced away after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck and slightly embarrassed about having said so much. 

“So...you don’t forget I exist whenever I don’t stand in front of you.”

Teddy nodded, a small smile on his face as he glanced over at Arty, before nudging against them. “I don’t forget about you, idiot. I forget what you look like, and I might forget what your handwriting looks like, and when I get distracted, I might forget that you’re still in the room, but I could never forget about  _ you _ .”

Arty grinned, a crooked little hesitant grin, and they leaned over, resting their forehead against Teddy’s. “Alright. I can deal with that. I can handle that.”

Teddy smiled, adjusting to set their plates off to the side as he pulled Arturo close, glad that they seemed to be feeling a  _ little _ better, and glad that this was one good, properly captain-y thing he could manage.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> (also. i hope you enjoyed arty and teddy because. i think i might write more of them. i've low-level shipped them for a while now, like, in that way you think two people were good back five or ten years ago, and they're amicable ex's that like to set each other up with dates and that sort of thing from time to time and just in general are good friends.)


End file.
